Chapter 2: The Stormy Weather of Yan and Zhao Section 28

  Xiong Ba was shocked when he received this news.

  "What did Murong say?"

  "The adults think that the enemy's reinforcements have three to four thousand people, and are led by the leopard of Lulong Pass, which is extremely threatening. Therefore, they plan to send Wumeng Dahan from the Tuliang tribe to block them and delay their crossing time."

  "Is your family's elder still continuing to attack the city?" Xiong Ba asked.

  "Yes. Today, the west side of the city wall has been taken by us several times, and the fall of the city is imminent. The general hopes that the attack on the east gate will be more fierce, to tie down Tian Kai tightly, in order to cover the main force troops to open a gap at the south gate and capture Fuyu City smoothly."

  Xiong Ba sank into silence, his head lowered, and circled around the war horse.

  "Tell your family's elder, in the situation where the city is about to be breached, it's not suitable to disperse the main battlefield's troops. Instead, we should concentrate all our strength and launch a fierce attack, striving for a quick victory. Or I can send someone to intercept at Baoqiu River. Baoqiu River itself is a very good defensive position. As long as we guard the opposite bank, we don't need too many troops to achieve the goal of delaying the enemy's crossing." Xiong Ba considered for a long time, stopped in his tracks, and slowly said to Murong Lin.

  Murong Lin was overjoyed and bowed his hands in respect to Xiong Ba, then mounted his horse and left.

  At noon, Xuan Feng led a thousand soldiers to rush to the Baoqiu River. Xiong Ba ordered them to bring enough arrows, and once the Han reinforcements crossed the river, they would use long arrows to seal off the river surface, trying not to engage in direct confrontation with the enemy as much as possible, avoiding unnecessary losses. Xiong Ba repeatedly warned Xuan Feng to be careful of Baoqiu, never to underestimate him, he was no longer the fool who had just lost his memory.

  Liu Yu wore a long gown made of plain cloth and stood on the city wall of Yucheng.

  In the afternoon, the enemy's offensive became more and more fierce, and the Han army was gradually unable to withstand it. He was anxious and eagerly awaited reinforcements. From bringing reinforcements to rush to Yuyang City until now, five or six days have passed, and there is still no sign of other reinforcements.

  The situation in Youzhou suddenly deteriorated since the Yellow Turban Rebellion last year. Although the great victory at the Battle of Luoyang Pass at the end of last year helped them temporarily get rid of the disadvantage of being invaded by the Hu people, it did not help them gain a lot of money and food, nor did it help the poor people in Youzhou to spend the long and severe winter smoothly.

  The Yellow Turban Rebellion, which had spread throughout the entire Han Dynasty's central region, gradually subsided before the end of last year with the deaths of the leaders Zhang Jue and his brothers, but its ferocity and madness severely devastated the already weak Han Dynasty, causing unprecedented blows to its politics, economy, and culture. The great hall of the Han Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and the empire was already teetering on the brink of collapse. There were not a few court officials who clearly saw the danger facing the empire, and Liu Yu was one of them.

  Liu Yu was from Donghai, Tancheng (now Tancheng County, Shandong), and was the sixth generation descendant of Liu Qiang, the Duke of East Sea. In his early years, due to the turmoil of the times, his family's fortunes declined, and although he was a member of the imperial clan, he had fallen to the same level as ordinary commoners. Liu Yu served as a minor official in the household department of Tancheng County when he was young, and later gradually rose through the ranks to become the Governor of Youzhou. Liu Yu was an honest and fair-minded official who won the hearts of the people with his outstanding governance. However, his kind and humble personality created a hidden problem - the governors of several major commanderies did not take him seriously. When they needed money, they would come to him to complain about their difficulties, but when he asked them to contribute their efforts, they would dodge him faster than rabbits.

  This time the Xianbei people invaded Yuyang, and Liu Yu happened to be in Zhuo County. He hastily brought two thousand county soldiers from Zhuo County day and night to rush to Yuyang City. However, the reinforcements from Guangyang County, which is adjacent to Yuyang, have not arrived yet. Although Liu Yu sent Xianyu Fu personally to Guangyang County to urge, there has been no news so far. The message from Lulong Pass said that the Xianbei people were stationed outside the pass, so the reinforcements from Youbeiping County were even more unattainable.

  Liu Yu looked at the fewer and fewer Han soldiers on the city wall, feeling heavy in his heart.

  From the morning on, the western city wall became the focus of enemy attacks. The Xianbei soldiers, regardless of their heavy casualties, stubbornly and persistently launched attacks. They organized hundred-man teams to charge again and again, tirelessly rotating shifts to attack, using every means possible to climb up the city walls, engaging in fierce battles with the Han army soldiers, refusing to yield. The Xianbei people used the method of exchanging several lives for one life on the defending side, dealing a heavy blow to the Han army, and the western city wall's defense line was once in danger. Han army soldiers were killed off at their own defensive points by the Xianbei people, and individual defensive areas had been occupied by the Xianbei people several times already.

  Both sides of the soldiers stared at each other with bloodshot eyes, hacking and chopping with knives and axes, thrusting and stabbing with guns and spears, using every trick in the book, even biting and pinching, as long as it could make the opponent die.

  The reserve troops of the Han army repeatedly plugged the gun holes and pulled out the nails, engaging in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. The battle on the city wall was unprecedentedly brutal.

  In the afternoon, the Xianbei suddenly stopped their attack. Under the low and loud sound of the ox horn, the soldiers quickly retreated from under the city to a safe area. But they did not withdraw back to the barracks to rest, instead they regrouped again, as if preparing for an even more fierce next round of attack.

  The city wall was densely packed with corpses, blood flowing freely, and the strong smell of blood floated in the air, spreading over the entire city.

  Liu Yu walked slowly on the city wall, his thin face pale and bloodless, looking old and sorrowful. He gazed at the soldiers' remains lying in various postures on the city wall, watching the wounded soldiers leaning against the wall and groaning loudly. His heart was filled with unbearable pain, unable to express his sadness and suffering in words. The flames of hatred were burning fiercely in his heart.

  He consistently adhered to a policy of appeasement towards the Hu people, hoping to coexist peacefully with the Hu people outside the Great Wall. With his sincere heart, he moved and comforted countless Hu nobles and ordinary people. He went against the opposition and set up many markets in Youzhou Prefecture, allowing Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Buyeo, and other Hu tribes to trade with Han people here, exchanging goods for goods, communicating with each other, and improving the living standards of both Hu and Han peoples. He relocated a large number of Wuhuan people to Daijun, Youzhou, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong, helping them build houses, teaching them farming and sericulture, and using every means to make them gradually abandon their nomadic life and get rid of poverty that had lasted for generations. He made great efforts to establish good relations with the chiefs of various tribes, and even provided food and money to Hu tribes in need when the state treasury was extremely depleted. He couldn't understand why these Hu people not only didn't show gratitude but also became more aggressive and wanted to invade and plunder after he had done so many good deeds, including releasing Uyan and several tribal leaders who were captured at Lulong Pass with great magnanimity.

  Are these barbarians really wolves by nature, a wolf that can never be satiated no matter how much it is fed?

  Liu Yu thought of his long-time colleague, the Grand Historian Bai Ma Gongsun Zan, who was then serving in a remote region of Liaodong. He had once expressed dissenting opinions on Liu Yu's methods of pacifying the Hu people. He believed that the Hu people should be killed and plundered until they were thoroughly intimidated, like dogs in a courtyard: stripped of all their possessions, only knowing how to fill their bellies and eke out a miserable existence, with nothing but food on their minds. In this way, they would not have any greedy desires. Without desires, they would not invade the Great Han territory as they do now, killing and plundering the people at will.

  Was that cruel and bloodthirsty Gongsun Zan right? Liu Yu was very puzzled, very painful. Why must two nations be mutually hostile, conquer each other, enslave each other, can't they just live together in harmony?

  Liu Yu thought of his good friend, the Xiongnu's Left Virtuous King Yufu Luo. After the Xiongnu split into two branches, the Southern Xiongnu moved south to Yunzhong and Shuofang under the permission of the Han Emperor, where they lived for decades without any conflicts with the Han people. Why did the Xianbei have to attack the Han Empire and try to occupy its territory? Since Tan Shi Huai unified the Xianbei tribe, there had been no end to the fighting between the two countries. Who benefited from it except for the countless white bones, the endless blood, and the tears of countless widows and orphans?

  But the bloody battlefield in front of him stimulated this old man to almost lose his own sanity.

  If the city is broken, what will be the fate of the people left in the city? Burning, killing, looting. Men will be killed, women and children will become slaves of the Xianbei people. Houses will be burned down, grain and everything that can be exchanged for goods will be taken away by these cruel barbarians to the Xianbei country. Therefore, the city of Yu Yang must not fall into enemy hands.

  Liu Yu saw his military officer, Yu Sui, whom he had brought from Zhuo County. Yu Sui was a robust middle-aged man with a flat face and sharp eyes. He was wounded, with a thick layer of cloth wrapped around his waist, which was stained red with fresh blood.

  "Sir, there are only 600 soldiers left on the west wall. Do you want to transfer some troops from the east wall over here? Otherwise, the defense of this side may be in danger." Yu Rang saw Liu Yu and rushed over.

  Liu Yu let out a sigh and remained silent.

  The people in the city were organized and divided into several civilian settlements to provide logistical support. Now, during the interval between battles, they ran out of their hiding places and did their own work voluntarily. Some people rushed onto the city wall to transport corpses and wounded soldiers. Some people on the city wall collected weapons and gathered scattered long arrows together. More people transported stones, wooden logs, bundles of long arrows, new war knives and long spears to the top of the city wall. The city wall was bustling with people coming and going, and the shouting voices were continuous.

  "If we withdraw troops from the east city wall, their defense will weaken, which makes no sense for the defense of this south gate." Li Hong said in a low voice.

  "Sir, I don't know what's going on over at East Gate."

  "The situation must be very bad. He only has 1,500 men on his side to deal with the Xianbei's army of 5,000, which is indeed a bit difficult. Xiong Ba is a famous general of the Xianbei people, wise and brave. Yesterday he launched a fierce attack all day, and Tian Duwei's troops lost more than 300 men, today's losses will not be less than this number."

  "Sir, the reinforcements have yet to arrive and we don't know when they will come. If we continue to lose men at this rate, in two or three days our soldiers will be exhausted. Without soldiers, how can we defend the west wall?"

  "Of course," Liu Yu said confidently.

  He pointed to the crowd coming and going with his finger and said, "Look at these people in the fishing city. They are our last reserve team, the last line of defense. They are like us, and their lives and deaths are closely tied to those of the fishing city. So no one will give up on the fishing city. As long as we hold on to the fishing city, everyone will have a way out."

  Without saying a word, he looked at Liu Yu with great respect and admiration, then bowed his head and retreated.

  Under the city, the huge horn sounded again, and the enemy's land attack began.